Officer shoots student with stun gun

This still taken from a student’s footage shows a Jacksonville school resource officer shooting a student at Jacksonville High School with a stun gun.

Submitted image

By MICHAEL TODD Daily News Staff

Published: Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 08:00 AM.

A school resource officer used a stun gun on a Jacksonville High School freshman during a fight in the courtyard this week, according to school officials, Jacksonville Police Department and the boy’s mother.

A video acquired by The Daily News shows two boys grappling amid an audience of peers near a covered walkway. A student captured the video, which shows an officer approaching the boys seconds later. In the footage, one boy lifts and slams the other on the ground, and the officer draws a stun gun, takes aim and fires.

The boy arches his torso, immediately grips his lower back with both hands and collapses in the grass face-down.

Jharmae Fisher said that boy is her son, 15-year-old Devron Duncan of Jacksonville. He was sore Friday, his back still scarred from the electricity that surged through his body, she said.

“It was unnecessary force because you don’t (use a stun gun on) a minor when they’re standing up and walking away,” Fisher said.

Duncan was taken by ambulance to Onslow Memorial Hospital and admitted to the emergency department about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, hospital spokeswoman Amy Sousa said. Duncan was released before 1 p.m.

Jacksonville Police Department spokeswoman Beth Purcell told The Daily News that all cases of an officer’s use of force are reviewed by the agency. The resource officer at Jacksonville High, she said, was notified about the fight at 11:06 a.m. The officer’s decision to deploy the stun gun — which the department calls an Electronic Impulse Device, or EID — is under investigation.

“(In) a high risk, rapidly evolving situation with the potential of imminent injury to any individual, an officer may apply the use of an EID to prevent further violence or injury,” Purcell said. “In any situation, the dynamics, particularly the timing and volatility of the incident, and the threatening actions of these individuals involved, all dictated the response of the officer.”

The department’s policy manual specifically addresses the use of a stun gun.

“The decision to use the EID will be dependent upon the actions of the individual, the threat facing the officer and the totality of circumstances surrounding the incident to include the subject’s resistance level involving aggressive physical resistance,” Purcell said, quoting the department’s policy manual.

A case of “aggressive physical resistance” refers to a continued threat that could result in the injury of any person, she added. Onslow County Schools public information officer Barry Collins said fights are not a big problem at the school.

“The school’s side is discipline,” Collins said. “The administration has to proceed with student discipline.”

Collins said the maximum penalty a school can levy without board of education approval is 10 days out-of-school suspension.

“If it’s a really bad fight and many people are injured, the principal could request expulsion,” Collins said. “I don’t think that’s the case here.”

Fisher said her son was suspended from the school for 10 days.

She said the use of force could have been avoided.

“He could have grabbed the boys by the shirts and told them to knock it off,” Fisher said.

She said her son has heart murmurs, a condition that could have made the high-voltage dose more dangerous.

Fisher said police have not allowed her to file a complaint against the other student, school or arresting officer, and she said the matter will be discussed with her lawyer Monday.

Fisher said she would have understood the officer’s decision had her son been on top of the other student when the officer reached the scene.

She also said the students should have been more closely monitored at lunch.

“The fight could’ve turned out very bad by the time officials got there,” Fisher said.

Fisher said she hopes the response Thursday can prevent excessive force against students in the future. “I’m hoping that these officers are retrained so that when they approach students fighting, unless there’s a weapon in hand, unless that student is coming to another student for more violence ... that officer will not draw out a Taser,” she said.

Because the fight involved minors, Purcell declined to release more details.

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A school resource officer used a stun gun on a Jacksonville High School freshman during a fight in the courtyard this week, according to school officials, Jacksonville Police Department and the boy’s mother.

A video acquired by The Daily News shows two boys grappling amid an audience of peers near a covered walkway. A student captured the video, which shows an officer approaching the boys seconds later. In the footage, one boy lifts and slams the other on the ground, and the officer draws a stun gun, takes aim and fires.

The boy arches his torso, immediately grips his lower back with both hands and collapses in the grass face-down.

Jharmae Fisher said that boy is her son, 15-year-old Devron Duncan of Jacksonville. He was sore Friday, his back still scarred from the electricity that surged through his body, she said.

“It was unnecessary force because you don’t (use a stun gun on) a minor when they’re standing up and walking away,” Fisher said.

Duncan was taken by ambulance to Onslow Memorial Hospital and admitted to the emergency department about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, hospital spokeswoman Amy Sousa said. Duncan was released before 1 p.m.

Jacksonville Police Department spokeswoman Beth Purcell told The Daily News that all cases of an officer’s use of force are reviewed by the agency. The resource officer at Jacksonville High, she said, was notified about the fight at 11:06 a.m. The officer’s decision to deploy the stun gun — which the department calls an Electronic Impulse Device, or EID — is under investigation.

“(In) a high risk, rapidly evolving situation with the potential of imminent injury to any individual, an officer may apply the use of an EID to prevent further violence or injury,” Purcell said. “In any situation, the dynamics, particularly the timing and volatility of the incident, and the threatening actions of these individuals involved, all dictated the response of the officer.”

The department’s policy manual specifically addresses the use of a stun gun.

“The decision to use the EID will be dependent upon the actions of the individual, the threat facing the officer and the totality of circumstances surrounding the incident to include the subject’s resistance level involving aggressive physical resistance,” Purcell said, quoting the department’s policy manual.

A case of “aggressive physical resistance” refers to a continued threat that could result in the injury of any person, she added. Onslow County Schools public information officer Barry Collins said fights are not a big problem at the school.

“The school’s side is discipline,” Collins said. “The administration has to proceed with student discipline.”

Collins said the maximum penalty a school can levy without board of education approval is 10 days out-of-school suspension.

“If it’s a really bad fight and many people are injured, the principal could request expulsion,” Collins said. “I don’t think that’s the case here.”

Fisher said her son was suspended from the school for 10 days.

She said the use of force could have been avoided.

“He could have grabbed the boys by the shirts and told them to knock it off,” Fisher said.

She said her son has heart murmurs, a condition that could have made the high-voltage dose more dangerous.

Fisher said police have not allowed her to file a complaint against the other student, school or arresting officer, and she said the matter will be discussed with her lawyer Monday.

Fisher said she would have understood the officer’s decision had her son been on top of the other student when the officer reached the scene.

She also said the students should have been more closely monitored at lunch.

“The fight could’ve turned out very bad by the time officials got there,” Fisher said.

Fisher said she hopes the response Thursday can prevent excessive force against students in the future. “I’m hoping that these officers are retrained so that when they approach students fighting, unless there’s a weapon in hand, unless that student is coming to another student for more violence ... that officer will not draw out a Taser,” she said.

Because the fight involved minors, Purcell declined to release more details.